Car Recycling
So, you've decided you want to recycle your car. Well, you're in exactly the right place. With more than 40 years of experience to our name, we recycle almost 250,000 UK vehicles per annum here at Scrap Car Network - that's around a quarter a million vehicles depolluted every year. Over the last four decades and counting, we've been refining our processes to ensure that the entire process is quick, easy, and allows you to enjoy maximum cash for your car.
Our service is nationwide, so whether you live in a major city (like London, Manchester, Birmingham or Leeds), a large town or a modest hamlet, you can always expect the very same outstanding level of service.
Why recycle your car with us?
There's a lot of choice out there when it comes to recycling your car, so why would you choose us at Scrap Car Network? Easy: because we give you the best price. That's not all though! There are plenty of reasons to choose us - here are some of the biggest!
We give you the best price
When you use our homepage to get an instant scrap car quote, we compare rates from your nearest local scrap car dealers, and pick the one nearest to you, who offers the very best price. That helps us to ensure that everything stays quick, easy and hassle-free - so you're never waiting too long for your motor to be collected, and you can enjoy maximum cash for your car.
Get a quote to find out what your car is worth
We are trustworthy and highly rated by our customers
When it comes to car recycling, we know exactly what you're looking for. Just ask our thousands of existing customers - we maintain a five-star rating on Trustpilot from over 20,000 reviews, and counting! Trust is a huge element of our business, and that's why we make sure to only ever partner with Authorised Treatment Facilities, who are licensed and monitored by the Environment Agency.
Read what our customers have to say
We're efficient and easy to use
We know that car recycling is far from the most exciting thing in the world, and it can be tedious to have to sit down and plough through a load of paperwork. That's why we've made sure to strip back the admin to the bare essentials, so you're not filling in endless irritating cookie-cutter forms. All we need to kick off with is your car reg and postcode, and once you've got your instant scrap car quote, we make sure to keep it all simple from there.
Our service is nationwide
We're a network of hundreds of scrap car dealers based all over the country, so it doesn't matter where in the UK you're based - you can be sure we'll know a trusted Authorised Treatment Facility that's not too far from you, so we can collect your car from you wherever you are. All you need to do is make sure that it's parked in an easily accessible location, and that it's got all four wheels - we'll do the rest!
With us, you'll even be helping charity
Discover the great work done by the Recycling Lives charity
Here's what we promise you when you recycle your car:
- Easy, instant online quote
- The very best price
- No last-minute doorstep haggling
- Free nationwide collection
- We take any type of car - including vans and motorcycles
- Secure, rapid payment by BACS or bank transfer
- Your data is protected according to GDPR
- Minimum of form-filling and paperwork
- Friendly service from one of our Authorised Treatment Facilities
- Prompt delivery of your Certificate of Destruction
- At least 95% of your car recycled
- We can even recycle your car if you've lost your V5C
We recycle a huge range of makes and models, including vehicles manufactured by:
For a full list of the makes and models we recycle, make sure to check out our Makes page.
The car recycling process explained
When it comes right down to it, car recycling is a relatively straightforward process in principle - the cleverness in it is all down to the mechanics and machinery being used. Here, we've provided a quick breakdown of the key phases in the procedure, starting from the moment the car arrives at an Authorised Treatment Facility.
Depollution
Your car is filled with all sorts of fluids and metals to help it properly function, and a surprising number of them are quite toxic. That means the very first step in recycling your car is what's called depollution - removing all hazardous materials like oil, brake fluid, batteries, and airbags (in case you're wondering, they can be explosive). These can then be safely disposed of and then recycled.
Dismantling
After the vehicle has been properly depolluted, it can then be essentially taken apart. Depending on whether the car naturally reached the end of its natural lifespan, or it's been written off in a collision, this is the point where particularly valuable parts may be removed (if they're still functioning). This includes the engine, transmission, and various electronics, which may be salvaged for re-use or refurbishment.
Shredding
Once the vehicle has been taken apart, the next phase in the recycling process is to shred the remaining car body into small pieces (using machinery that's been specially designed for the job). The point of this is essentially to make it easier to separate remaining components, such as steel and non-ferrous metals, and plastic and other similar materials.
Separation and sorting
When the initial shredding process is complete, the mixture of the remaining materials goes through a variety of specialised processes to separate them further. For example, magnets may be used to remove ferrous metals, while eddy current separators can be used to isolate non-ferrous metals, such as aluminium.
Recycling
Now we're on to the specific recycling bit of the overall recycling process. Now that the materials have been separated, they can be sent to specialised recycling facilities for processing. Metals for example can be melted down to be used as raw materials for manufacturing new products, as plastics may be similarly recycled into new plastic products, or alternatively used as fuel for energy recovery.
Anything that can't be effectively re-used, recycled or repurposed are disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. Landfill disposal is minimised as much as possible.
Here at Scrap Car Network, we're on a mission to ultimately recycle 100% of each vehicle we process, and we're always proactively looking for ways we can improve the efficiency of our operations. When you choose us to recycle your car, you're helping us to take one tiny step further forward to this goal!
And of course, if you've got any questions about how to recycle a car, don't hesitate to get in touch with our team today. We'll always be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Alternatively, if you're all set to get started, feel free to enter your car reg and postcode into the fields on our site today! Curious to see how much your car is worth?